


high school days

by pinkfluers



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF), dan and phil
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Best Friends, Cute Dan Howell/Phil Lester, Dan Howell and Phil Lester Are Teenagers, Depressed Dan Howell, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, High School, Homophobia, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Sad Dan Howell, Smut, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 16:35:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30058386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkfluers/pseuds/pinkfluers
Summary: dan and phil are in high school.descriptions of sh, violence, homophobia, implied s*uicide, mental health issues.
Relationships: Dan Howell & Phil Lester





	high school days

First bell rang. Great. I get to spend an entire hour sitting next to Alex. Sweet, cute, amazing Alex, who won’t even give me a second glance. Why would he? Someone as fantastic as him would never even want to-

“Phil? You alright, mate?” It was him. He flopped his books down on the desk, sat down, and turned to me, with a look of pure worry on his face. 

“What’s wrong?” he demanded, obviously not going to give up without an answer.

“Parents… fighting,” I mumbled, not really knowing what I was saying. 

“Your parents are fighting again?” He asked, his look of stubbornness gone and an expression of sympathy taking its place. “I’m sorry Phil,” he said, wrapping his arms around me. I inhaled sharply before I realised what was happening, and wrapped my arms around his sides. It wasn’t an exact lie, my parents were fighting a lot, but I wasn’t that bothered about it. 

I was bothered about being one hundred percent completely in love with Alex. He wasn’t exactly helping these feelings either. His arms were strong and warm, and he had a clear, sweet, familiar scent. He was beautiful.

“Thanks, Alex,” I said, pulling away after a few seconds, so I wouldn’t seem creepy. 

“It’s alright, Phil. I’m always here for you, and you know it,” he comforted, putting his hand on my shoulder supportively, sending tingles through my whole body. I forced a smile at him, and he smiled back, obviously believing my fake one was real.

“Good morning, class,” our teacher, Mr. Toms, said, entering the room. “Today we will be learning about limestone and Daniel Howell, you are late,” he boomed, barely taking a breath to scold the boy who came in late. 

“Sorry, sir,” he replied, looking flushed and obviously out of breath. I had to sit next to him in several lessons, including this one, and to be honest, I hated it. He was a nice enough guy, and sometimes I’d talk to him, but he always stuttered, and he was almost always late for class. I decided to take pity on him this lesson.

“Are you alright?” I whispered to him, looking at his red cheeks. He hesitated before nodding, staring back at me. “Here,” I said, rolling my eyes and digging around in my backpack. I pulled out a bottle of water and offered it to him. He smiled slightly and took it from me, unscrewing the top. 

“Thank you,” he puffed, taking large gulps of the drink. He has a cute smile, I gave him that.

“Alright, class, you’ll have to work in pairs for this project. Labs coats and safety glasses are at the back. Girls, make sure all long hair is tied back, boys, don’t pull any of the girls’ hair,” Mr. Toms instructed. 

“Alex, are you going with me or Chris today?” I asked, turning to him slightly.

“Yeah, I promised Chris. Sorry, Phil. I can go with you instead if you want?” Alex answered, obviously feeling bad. 

“No, Alex, it’s okay,” I replied, turning my attention to the boy on my right instead. “Is it okay if I go with you then, Dan?” I asked. He stared at me with wide eyes, before shaking himself slightly. 

“Yeah, sure,” he said, forcing a small smile. I frowned. 

“Look, Dan,” I said, pulling him closer to me by his shoulder. “I know you’re not happy right now.” Dan stared at my hand resting on his shoulder. “Don’t pretend to be happy when you’re not. It’ll only make things worse, okay?” I comforted, knowing what it’s like to fake most of you’re emotions. 

“I’m not sad,” he whispered to me, sliding his eyes up away from my hand to look into mine. 

“Good,” I said, removing my hand and giving him a small smile. “Let’s get started on this experiment then, huh?” I passed him a pair of safety glasses.

“Thank you,” he said, putting them on, getting his hair caught around one of the arms.

“Come here,” I said, untangling his side fringe from the plastic. He chuckled lightly as I undid the knot and patted his hair down, making sure it was neat. I stepped back to see if it was straight.

“Better?” I asked, picking up a beaker of lime water.

“Much,” he replied, nodding.

After a lesson of flicking lime water everywhere, testing to see if it actually tasted like limes, and just generally not doing the work, Dan and I had landed ourselves after-school detention. Mr. Toms was not very pleased with all the broken test tubes scattered around. Throughout the entire time he was scolding us for misusing school property and messing around when school work was supposed to be done, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one of Dan and myself that was holding back laughter. As his stupid, not-needed, rant was ending, he finished with his famous, “and if you ever misbehave again, you shall be suspended!” line.

“Nice to know, sir, see you later. Catch you in English, Phil,” Dan said, grabbing his things and backing out of the classroom with a cheery wave. I looked at Mr. Toms and he stared back at me, both of us thinking the same thing; ‘what got into him?’ I shrugged and grabbed my things.

“See you after school, sir,” I said, shutting the door behind me.

‘Nice going, Phil. Detention from the first lesson on the first day of the week. What’s mum going to say?’ I scolded myself mentally, pushing open the door to my English classroom. 

“Sit down quickly, please, Mr. Lester. This lesson is vital if you wish to pass your exams,’ my English teacher, Miss Chester, announced, indicating towards an empty seat at the front. I jogged towards it, slinging open my backpack on the back of my chair, scrambling for my notebook. I pushed it onto the desk, then started to look for my pen. 

“Great, left it in science,” I whispered to myself, sighing.

“Psst,” a voice hissed quietly next to me. “Here,” he said, and a pen was slid across the desk over to me.

“Thanks,” I said, taking it and quickly scribbling down what the teacher just said. I looked up the person next to me, to see who I had to return it to. “Oh, thanks, Dan.” He smiled timidly, cheeks turning a slight shade of pink.

“You’re welcome,” he replied, before turning away to write more notes.  
‘Sweet kid’ I thought to myself before turning back to my notes as well. 

“Okay, class, I’ll give you a few minutes to swap your notes with others in case you missed out anything.” 

I turned towards Dan, who wasn’t as bad as I’d originally thought. After an hour of breaking school property with someone, it’s hard to completely hate them. 

“Here,” he said, passing me his notebook. I scribbled down the ones I didn’t have, then wrote the ones of mine he didn’t have on his. “No, you don’t have to write it for me,” he protested, not sure whether to sit still or take the book back from me. 

“Too late,” I smiled, passing his book back to him. He smiled back, taking the book and putting it into his backpack. He turned back again, but not to me. He faced forwards, not sure if he could continue a conversation with me. He hunched over suddenly as if hiding something. He turned from me slightly and started to furiously scratch at his wrists.

“Oh no,” I whispered, leaning back in my chair. 

“Wha-?” He turned back to me, rolling his shoulders back, trying to sit normally. 

“Oh, Dan,” I whispered to him. He shuffled uncomfortably, looking ashamed. “Look, what do you do at lunch, and break, Dan? Do you want to hang out then?’ I asked, changing the subject. He eased considerably, a smile slowly spreading across his face. 

“Yes, please,” he said through the grin.

“Awesome,” I replied, smiling back at him. He was actually very similar to me; we both had side fringes, and we had matching black skinny jeans on with the required white school shirt and tie. If anyone were to look at us, they might have thought we were brothers. 

“Well, I can’t be bothered making any more notes. Can we just sulk off to the back and talk? I’m bored,” I said, rocking on my chair. Dan nodded.

“Okay, I’d like that,” he replied, swinging his bag over his shoulder. I did the same. 

“Miss, we’re just going to the back to trade notes with Alex,” I called over to her so she wouldn’t get suspicious when we moved to the back.

“That’s fine,” she said, not looking up from her Garden! magazine. 

“Hey, Alex,” I said, pulling up a chair near him, and indicating for Dan to sit in the chair next to mine.

“Hey, Bud. Feeling better?” Bud was Alex’s pet name for me, and every time he said it, it made my stomach lurch with butterflies.

“Much,” I responded with a smile.

“Good,” he replied, smiling back before carrying on with his notes.

“So, Dan,” I said, turning towards him. He looked up at me with nothing but interest in his expression. “Not to sound mean or anything, but what is with you?” I asked, trying to sound worried instead of disgusted. He shrugged.

“I don’t know. People just don’t seem to like me, so I’m pretty shy,” he said, leaning back in his chair.

“You didn’t seem very shy earlier when you walked out of science pretty comically,” I retorted, giving him a sideways smile. He looked down at my lips and smiled, turning slightly pink again. He flicked his gaze back up to my eyes.

“Because you were nice to me. You put me in a good mood, and I do stupid and weird things when I’m in a good mood,” Dan replied, kicking his feet up so he could rest them on the table.

“You in a good mood now?” I asked, laughing at him slightly and resting my feet on the table like he was.

“The best mood,” he said, grinning. 

“People aren’t very nice to you, are they?” I said, my smile falling as I dropped my gaze to his wrists. He folded his arms and I looked away, not wanting to pry or be obvious.

“No, they're not,” he replied.

“Why not?” I asked, tilting my chair backwards. He shrugged again.

“They just think I’m weird. No idea why,” he responded, a bit too happy for such a sensitive subject.

“Probably just jealous,” I said, looking at his shoes. “Hey, I have shoes similar to those.”

“Really? Awesome! Anyway, jealous of what? I don’t have anything, I’m not exactly a person to be jealous of,” he said, sniffing slightly. 

“Well, you’re pretty funny, you’re cute, you’re smart, and you’re thin. Have you seen half the guys here? They should rename this school ‘St Mary’s Grammar School of Whales’,” I scoffed, puffing out my cheeks and making round gestures around my stomach, imitating some of the chubbier boys in our class. He smiled weakly, his face beetroot red now. 

“Yeah,” he whispered, looking down and removing his feet from the desk. 

“What’s up?” I asked him, putting my hand on his shoulder. He looked up at me, took in my position, and looked away, mouth open as if he were about to say something, but nothing came out. 

‘N-nothing,” he whispered. 

The bell rang. Dan sprinted up, grabbed his bag, and ran out of the classroom. I fumbled to gather my things and followed him. 

“Dan, wait!” I called, quickening my pace to a run. I burst out into the hallway, looking around for him. I caught a glimpse of him running into the toilets. ‘Dan,” I sighed. I had to go after him, I can’t very well avoid him now. For some strange reason, I couldn’t find it in me to just leave him to get on with his life. There was more to him than this brave front; I needed to help him. I pushed the door open. If I hadn’t just seen Dan run in here, I’d have thought I was alone. 

“Dan?” I whispered, pushing open the first cubicle door. It swung open. Nothing. “Are you there?” I raised my voice ever so slightly. I pushed the next door along. Nope. “Dan?” I called again, walking over to the last door. “Please, I want to see you,” I said comfortingly. I heard a small shuffle coming from the cubicle. I rushed back to the bathroom door and closed it, sliding the top bolt up to make sure no one would come in. I crept back over to Dan’s cubicle and wiggled myself in. “What’s wrong?” I asked softly, crouching next to the tiny shaking figure. 

“Nothing, Phil,” he said, voice cracking. A stream of fresh teardrops falling from his eyes. 

“Obviously something’s wrong,” I pressed gently, sitting on the cold tile floor now, turning so my back was against the cubicle door like Dan’s was. I tried to look at his face, but his knees were up to his cheeks, his face dipped in between. I put an arm around him, and he gasped slightly at my touch. “What’s wrong, love?’ I said, hugging him to me. I don’t know if it was effective, but I did to him what Alex did to comfort me, and that always seemed to work. He inhaled sharply, then grabbed the front of my shirt, flipping himself over into my chest, where he let out all his tears. I was shocked to start with, but I soon caught up with my mind and held the back of his head with one hand, stroking his hair gently, and held his back supportively with the other. “It’s going to be alright, love. I promise,” I whispered to him, tightening my grip. He pulled himself up, so he was sitting more upright. He rested his head in the crook of my neck, his arms around my waist. No more sobs escaped his lips, but large waves of tears still flowed.

“Shh, shh,” I comforted, rocking him slightly. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, clinging on to me. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s more than alright, Dan.” I kissed the top of his lightly, then immediately regretted it. I didn’t even know this kid for God’s sake, yet there I was, holding him and kissing him as he cried. He froze. The tears stopped. The breathing stopped. After a few seconds, he pulled away and looked up at me. 

“I’ve got to go,” he said, standing up and helping me up after him. 

“Go? Go where? It’s still school time,” I said, following him out of the cubicle.

“Home,” he replied, dragging me out of the bathroom, unlocking the door first. “Come with me?” he asked, big brown eyes staring up at me. 

How could I have said no?

**Author's Note:**

> pls forgive me if this fic is a bit cringe. i started writing it when i was fourteen and i'd like to finish it :) so i'm posting it here


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